As a taste of what maybe to expect from the book, the afterward by Kenji Ohtsuki to the previous collection of Ranpo stories I read has a fun list of what he considered 8 charms of Edogawa Ranpo’s writing:
① タイトルのネーミングのウマさ
② イラストレーションとのマッチングの妙
③ ユートピア願望
④ 母胎回帰願望
⑤ ショック! 残酷描写
⑥ つっこみどころまんてんのトンデモなさ
⑦ ダメ人間の悲喜劇
⑧ レトロおしゃれな東京散歩
or as I roughly translated at the time:
a knack for titles
a strangeness living up to the illustrations
utopian aspiration
returning-to-the-womb aspiration
shock!
perfectly comic absurdity
tragicomedy of hopeless people
strolls through retro-cool Tokyo
All of these were amply demonstrated in that collection, except for the wild illustrations (I think he was talking about the editions that look more like this) and the “utopian aspiration,” which is where he talked about Panorama Island quite a bit. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I’m looking forward to finding out!
I should start doing that again.
I stopped reading at night because I was scared off by the warning… and never got back in the habit. I’m three weeks behind at the moment, I think
Edit: Ah, but only one chapter away from being two weeks behind. Let’s go.
Enthusiasm?
Well, it wasn’t so bad (or at least very short) and nothing similar came up yet, so maybe I should just go back to my previous schedule. At one chapter a day, I should be able to catch up eventually.
I won’t be posting the threads (or reading the book again), but I do hope you stick around (after a conveniently-timed break) for the next Advanced Book Club pick: 本陣殺人事件!
I definitely recommend it!
There’s some interesting continuity, as it’s written by 横溝正史 who was reportedly the original editor of Panorama Island as it was serialized (although it was written 20 years later than Panorama Island). I think he makes a super interesting contrast with Ranpo, and I hope you agree!